Tinley Park Resident Donates Gift Cards to Teens Fighting Cancer

Tinley Park resident Austin Carter is giving to teens fighting cancer. Austin Carter (age 21) decided to spend the money he saved from working all year to support teens fighting cancer. Austin donated $100 in gift cards to the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation. During the past eleven years, Austin has donated an impressive $650 in gift cards and more than $1,000 in toys to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation.

Austin said, “I’ve done this for twelve years now because my three grandparents passed away from cancer. I’m a people person and I always like to put others before me. Now I’m studying chemistry in hopes of finding a cure one day.”

“The support of the local community means a lot and we are extremely grateful to Austin for his generous donation. It was very honorable of him to give up his money from working all year to help teens who are battling cancer,” said Colleen Kisel, Founder and CEO of the Treasure Chest Foundation.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 15,700 young cancer patients in 65 cancer treatment centers in 21 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Ms. Kisel discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 29th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.

Photo caption: Tinley Park resident Austin Carter (age 21) displays $100 in donated gift cards at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse which will help comfort teenage cancer patients. During the past twelve years, Austin has donated an impressive $650 in gift cards and more than $1,000 in toys to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation.